Flooring



15, 1933- H. B. CHAMBERLAIN 1,922,472

FLOORING Filed March 5, 1932 i hlu Jfanb B. abambezzain;

. 1,922,472 PATENT OFFICE FLOORING Harold B. Chamberlain, New York, N.Y., as-

signor to Tuco Products Corporation, New York, N. Y., a Corporation ofNew York Application March 5, 1932. Serial No. 597,065

8 Claims.

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in fioorings, andmore particularly to a flooring in which there are a plurality of ex--pansion joint strips that are, in turn, securely held to a sub flooring.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a flooring that isespecially adaptable for railway and subway cars.

As is well known, many railway cars and subway cars are provided with aconcrete or other hard composition flooring to thus withstand the treadof feet, but due to the weaving of the car and the'stresses and strainsand jolts to which the car is subjected, the flooring is apt to break orcrack.

One of the present objects, therefore, is to provide a floor formed ofconcrete or other hard composition. In fact, the present floors areformed of a composition known in the trade as Tucolith, although anyother similar cementitious floor might be used.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a floor which isespecially adapted for cars wherein sub-fiooring is used, made up of anumber of steel truss plates, across which are placed expansion jointfloor strips, so that the car floor surface is, in reality, divided intoten or twelve blocks. Thus, if a rupture happens to occur in theflooring, it will not extend beyond the first expansion strip that itmeets. Again, the strips divide the floor into a number of blocks torelieve the composition floor of the strain, due to the weaving of thecar.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a steel sub-flooringmade up of a plurality of sheets in which there are located supportingclips and on which, in turn, are secured cross strips. Then, coveringthe sub-fiooring and em bedding the cross strips is the compositionflooring, the cross strips, in reality, dividing the flooring into anumber of blocks to thus relievethe floor from the strains due to theweaving of the car or the strains due to expansion and contraction ofthe composition flooring.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certainnew and novel arrangements and combination of parts, as will behereinafter more fully described and pointed out in the claims.

Referring now to the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary sectional perspective of a floor for a car, oneof the cross strips being shown embedded in the composition flooringwhile another cross strip is shown about to be embedded within thecomposition flooring;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal view of one of the cross strips, one part ofthe strip being shown before coating and also showing how the striprests on the supporting clip, the other half of the strip being shownwith the rubber composition thereon, and the marginal edge beingscraped;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of a portion of the cross strip before thesame is coated;

Fig. 4 is a sectional View taken on the line 44 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a similar sectional view but showing the coating as applied tothe cross strip.

' Referring now more particularly to the several views, and for themoment to Fig. 1, there is shown a sub-flooring 1 made up of a pluralityof hollow steel truss plates 2, which provide channels 3 at theiradjoining edges where they are riveted, as at 4. These two plates areprovided with a plurality of depressions 3, which abut when I the platesare placed in their inverted positions and may be riveted together, asat 4', the abutments thus forming a plurality of supporting pointsbetween the two plates.

Where the plates are riveted together, there are placed rows of U- hapedclamps 5 and as the plates are practically two and one-half feet betweencenters, that will space the rows of clamps about five foot intervalsthroughout the length of the floor.

The number of these U-shaped clamps set along the joints will depend, ofcourse, upon the width of the flooring and as many may be used asdesired to support the cross strips now about to be explained.

Referring for the moment to Figs. 2 to 5 inclusive, there is shownpreferably a brass strip 6 that is provided with the alternate fins 7and 8 throughout its length, which fins are simply pressed out onopposite sides of the strip, as may be readily understood.

As before mentioned, the number of strips will depend upon the length ofthe car, but in an ordinary car there will be thirteen to fourteen ofthese transversely extending expansion joint floor strips.

an inch, as may be seen in Figs. 1, 2 and 5, the 5.; purpose of whichwill shortly be explained.

Referring for the moment to the right-hand side of Fig. 1, there isshown a fragmentary portion of the strip 6 and resting on the supportingU-shaped clamp 5, the fin 7 bridging the clip and forming a bearingsurface for the said strip 6. After the strip is placed in position, apreliminary application of the composition flooring will be poured intothe channel to a plane just above the fin 7 of the strip and will beallowed to set so that the strip will be tightly embedded in itsposition on the U-clips. In the same manner, the other strips may beembedded throughout the length of the car.

After the composition has hardened sufficiently, it will be seen thatthe strips, including the fins, are rigidly held in place and themainapplication of the flooring composition is poured.

It will be remembered that, as stated, the elastic composition isscraped from the upper edges of the strips, and the purpose of this isto preclude the possibility of the composition smearing the Tucolithflooring composition during the trowelling process.

I have found that even though the coating on the cross strip orexpansion joint floor strip is scraped for approximately one-eighth ofan inch from its top, the trowelling process squeezes the adjacentcoating somewhat, so that this coating is pressed upwardly slightly tomake up for a part of the one-eighthinch, where it has been scraped off.

Thus, there is no danger of the elastic composition spoiling the eifectsof the Tucolith flooring which may have a pattern or may be of variouscolors, as desired.

The flooring is then allowed to set and I have found that by providingthis sub-flooring and the expansion joint floor strips formed and coatedas shown, the possibility of the fioor cracking, due to the weaving ofthe car, is greatly lessened, and should a crack appear after longservice, the same will extend only through the block in which itstarted.

It will be understood that although I have shown a special form of steelsub-floor in the drawing, many of the other well-known subfloors mightbe utilised, wherein there are channel or arch formations and, in someinstances, the cross strips might be set bodily on the channelformations, thus dispensing with the use of spring brackets. I

In all instances, however, and regardless of how the cross strip ismounted or the specific shape of the same, the cross strip is to becoated with an elastic material that extends nearly to the marginalupper edge of the cross stripso that the plastic flooring, when setting,may squeeze the plastic coating upwardly of thecross strip, the elasticcoating taking care of any expansion or contraction of the plasticfloor.

It will be further understood that although I have stated that thestructure is one that is preferably used on car floors, it will beappreciated that a surfacing of this kind may be used in all kinds offloors which are to be made up of. a cementitious composition, such asconcrete floors, sidewalks, roads, and other surfacing of a similarnature.

Again, it will be understood that these cross strips might be set atevery joint of the truss plates or the cross strips may be set furtherapart, the purpose being simply to divide the floor into a desirednumber of blocks.

Having thus described my invention, what, I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A floor comprising a sub-floor formed of hollow steel truss plateshaving channelforma tions between said plates, supporting clips securedto the truss plates in certain of said channels, expansion stripsmounted on said clips, said channels containing a plastic compositionand said plastic composition also extending over said floor and thefloor substantially divided into blocks by said expansion strips.

2. A floor including a sub-floor formed of hollow steel truss platessecured to each other, channel formations between said plates, metalsupporting means secured to said plates in certain of said channels,expansion strips mounted on said supporting means, a oementitiouscomposition filling said channels and embedding said expansion strips,said cementitious composition also coveringsaid sub-floor, the expansionstrips allowing for the expansion and contraction of the cementitiouscomposition.

3. A fioor including a sub-door formed of steel truss plates secured toeach other and provided with transversely extending channels betweensaid plates, rows of supporting clips in certain of said channels,expansion strips having portions bent outwardly from the vertical torest on said clips, and an elastic composition on said strips, a plasticcomposition filling said channels and covering said sub floor andproperly embedding the cross strips.

4. A monolithic fioor for railway cars including a sub-floor formed ofhollow steel truss plates, channel formations between said truss plates,rows of supporting means secured to said plates in certain of the saidchannels, said cross strips having oppositely extending fins mounted onsaid supporting means, a monolithic composition filling said channelsand covering said sub floor, and the upper edges of the cross strips ina plane with the surface of the monolithic floor.

5. A sub-floor plates having channel formations between said plates,expansion strip supporting means secured in certain of said channels,metal expansion strips having an elastic composition thereon resting onsaid supporting means, the upper marginal edges of said strips, however,being free of said composition.

6. A flooring for railway cars and the like comprising a steel sub-floorof truss and channel formation, cross strips extending along certain ofsaid channel formations, a cementitious flooring filling said channelsto embed said cross strips and covering said sub-floor, and said crossstrips having an elastic coating thereon and the coating extendingwithin a slight distance of the upper marginal edge of said crossstrips.

.7. A flooring for railway cars and the like comprising a sub-floor madeup of steel plates, said sub-floor having channel-like formations formedtherein, cross strips set in said channel formations, said cross stripsprovided with an elastic coating extending to a plane near their uppermarginal edges, a plastic flooring on said subfloor andembedding saidstrips, and the plastic flooring extending flush with the upper edgesofsaid cross strips. 1

8. A flooring for railway cars and the like comprising a metalsub-floor, the sub-floor having a plurality of arch-like formationsformed therein, a metal cross strips located between said archlikeformations and extending upwardly in a plane above said arch-likeformations, a plastic flooring covering said sub-floor and embeddingsaid cross strips, said cross strips provided with a coating of elasticmaterial, and the said cross strips having their upper edges lying in aplane substantially flush with the said plastic flooring.

HAROLD B. CHAMBERLAIN.

including hollow steel truss 1

